This Recommendation describes a methodology to qualify metallic cables for broadband use@ before and after their installation on access networks. The qualification process is based on measurements of transmission rate (TR) carried out on the worst possible use condition of the cables@ i.e.@ when all pairs are transmitting at the same time. This methodology is known as the spectral emulation method (SEM) and can be applied to qualify modern broadband networks and old telephone networks used to carry xDSL signals.